Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about Monos.
I’m Victor Tam, co-founder and CEO of Monos. I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my life in one form or another. I started selling things online when I was 13, and I’ve always been fascinated by the process of taking an idea and turning it into something real.
We started Monos in Vancouver in 2018 with a pretty simple belief: travel products could be better designed, better made, and a little more thoughtful. We began with luggage, but I’ve never really thought of Monos as just a luggage company. To me, it’s a brand about how we move through the world. The goal is to make fewer, better things that people can live with for a long time, and hopefully bring a bit more intention into everyday life and travel.
What is one morning ritual or habit you never skip, no matter how busy life gets?
Running.
It’s probably the one constant for me. I’ve been running for a long time, and these days it’s as much mental as it is physical. There’s something about getting outside, especially early in the morning before everything starts coming at you, that clears my head.
Some of my best thinking happens while I’m running. Sometimes I’m working through a problem, and other times I’m intentionally not thinking about work at all. Either way, I almost always come back feeling more grounded.
What was the moment that inspired you to create Monos?
There wasn’t one dramatic lightbulb moment. It was more a collection of observations over time.
I had spent years building brands online, and when I looked at the luggage category, there was this strange gap. On one end you had very traditional luxury luggage that was extremely expensive, and on the other you had products that were mostly functional but felt pretty disposable. Even some of the newer brands at the time felt very focused on growth and marketing first.
We felt there was room to build something more considered. Something where the product, design, materials, customer experience, photography, stores and even the way we communicated all felt like they came from the same point of view.
That was really the beginning of Monos. We wanted to make products we personally wanted to own and then build the kind of brand we felt was missing.
What is one piece of advice or guiding principle that shapes how you approach both your work and your life?
Probably delayed gratification.
A lot of the things that ended up shaping my life didn’t look particularly important while I was doing them. When I was young, I learned how to build websites because I was curious. Then I wanted to understand how people found those websites, so I learned digital marketing. One thing kept leading to another.
You rarely see the compounding while it’s happening.
I think the same thing applies to building a company, running, relationships, almost everything. You put in small amounts of work consistently, often without any immediate reward, and years later you realize how much those little decisions added up.
I try not to optimize too much for the immediate outcome. I’d rather keep learning, keep showing up and give things enough time to compound.
You’ve said that at Monos, you believe in slowing down. Why do you think it’s so important?
Because almost everything around us is trying to make us move faster.
We’re constantly being shown more things, asked to respond to more things and encouraged to consume more things. And I’m definitely not immune to that. I run a company, I have a family, there are always a hundred things happening.
For me, slowing down doesn’t mean doing less or lacking ambition. It means being present enough to decide what actually deserves your attention.
That thinking has influenced Monos from the beginning. We talk about fewer, better things because the answer isn’t always another product or another purchase. Sometimes it’s choosing something carefully, using it for years and appreciating it more.
And when you travel, there are these moments when you're pulled out of your normal routine. You notice things again. I think that’s part of why travel is so valuable.
What are the must-haves in your Monos carry on?
Running shoes are probably the first thing. I try to run almost everywhere I travel. It’s one of my favorite ways to see a city because you experience it completely differently than you would from a car.
Beyond that, I pack pretty simply. Good headphones, chargers, something to read, comfortable clothes and usually enough workout gear that I don’t have an excuse not to train.
I’ve become a much lighter packer over time. There’s something satisfying about realizing you really don’t need that much.
And, obviously, everything is organized into packing cubes. I might be slightly biased there.
Tell us about one of your favorite destinations and some must-do’s while you’re there. (favorite city, favorite hotel, favorite restaurant, etc.)
My favorite city is probably a toss-up between Hong Kong and Tokyo. Hong Kong has a personal connection for me because my family is from there, so there’s a familiarity and energy to it that I’ll always love. Tokyo is almost the opposite in some ways. I’m fascinated by the attention to detail there, from the food and design to the way even the smallest experiences feel considered.
One of my favorite hotels is Pearl Star Hotel Atami in Japan. It’s a seaside onsen hotel, and there’s something about being by the water, slowing everything down and doing absolutely nothing for a while that I really appreciate.
And one of my favorite restaurants is actually a tiny mom-and-pop pizza place in Kyoto. Nothing overly fancy. They were blasting Red Hot Chili Peppers while making these incredible pizzas, and the whole place just had so much personality. Those are usually the places I remember most when I travel.
I think that sums up how I like to travel. I love beautiful hotels and thoughtful design, but the memories that stick with me are usually the unexpected, very human ones.
What routines or practices help you reset and maintain balance at the end of a busy day, no matter where you are in the world?
Exercise is a big one for me. If I’ve already run in the morning, even just getting outside and walking at the end of the day helps.
I also try to create some separation between work and the rest of my life. That’s definitely harder as a founder because there’s always another message you could answer or another problem you could think about.
Over the years I’ve realized that recovery is part of performance. You can’t constantly operate at full intensity and expect to make good decisions indefinitely.
So for me it’s pretty simple: movement, a good meal, time with my family when we’re together, and trying to give my brain a chance to switch off. I’m still working on the last one.
